Factors Of Chemotherapy From Different Classes Combined With USMB Effect Drug Efficacy In Breast Cancer Cells

Ultrasound microbubble therapy (USMB) has shown to increase cell membrane permeability, minimize interaction between normal tissue and cytotoxic agents from the requirement of lower chemotherapy dosages, and permits the localized delivery of chemotherapy. The drug efficacy from combined treatment of chemotherapy and USMB is dependent on many variables including the chemotherapy agent, USMB parameters, and tumour cell type. This study treated a human breast cancer cell line with USMB and agents from two different chemotherapy classes, alkylating agents (oxaliplatin and carboplatin) and metabolic inhibitors (gemcitabine and 5-fluorouracil). Colony assays were used to measure cell viability of cells treated with chemotherapy alone, and chemotherapy combined with USMB over increasing concentrations of chemotherapy. The cell viability results showed that the alkylating agents performed better than the metabolic inhibitors when combined with USMB. This study suggests that chemotherapy's internalization method and mechanism of action contribute to the efficacy of combined treatment.